Advisory Board

JÜRGEN WAHL
Entrepreneur Renewable Energy (Austria)

Starting his career Jürgen spent almost one year as a civil servant in an integrated forestry management project in Bhutan, Asia. For more than 5 years he served in the cabinet of the  Austrian Minister of the Environment as a permanent advisor  for sustainability issues, energy politics, climate change and environmental economics. In 2002 he changed to the international project development business and was Head of International project development and financing with Verbundplan GmbH (now Pöyry Energy). He co-developed the first Austrian Joint Implementation project in Bulgaria and CDM projects in India and Bhutan in 2006 he founded his own consulting business. Jürgen holds a MSc of the University of Agricultural Sciences Vienna, Austria and an MBA from the Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota, USA.

NIKOLAUS SPIECKERMANN
Venture Capital (Austria)

Nikolaus is a Partner with the Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) technology investment firm  Gamma Capital Partners and specialises in Cleantech, Medtech and New Media investment. Nikolaus has over ten years experience in finance, consulting and venture capital investing. Prior to GCP, he worked for a Vienna-based VC firm and spent several years with a London-based strategy consultancy, where he participated in over 30 transactions in the UK and across the continent. Nikolaus holds an MA in Business from WU Vienna and an MSc in Political Economy from the London School of Economics. He is actively involved in primary-healthcare projects in West Africa, managed by Vienna/Ouagadougou-based NGO  laafi, which he co-founded in 1994.

PATRICE MOLINARI
Private Equity (Middle-East)

Patrice has 13 years experience in consulting and private equity. Over the past 4 years, he initiated and launched three Private Equity Funds for a total commitment of USD570M and executed privatizations, mezzanine, growth capital transactions across the Middle-East, the USA and Asia. Patrice is a sector generalist with a focus on Clean Technologies, Telecom, Technology, Infrastructure, Transportation. He also handled the restructuring of several corporate entities in Kuwait and launched greenfield regional businesses including KGL Logistics in Kuwait and Gulf Aviation in Dubai. Prior to that, Patrice worked as a development advisor to governments in Europe, consulting on national strategic planning and the management of large scale infrastructure projects. Patrice started his career as an engineer at Alcatel. He is a CFA charterholder, holds a MSc (Aeronautical Engineering and Computer Science) from the French Civil Aviation Academy, and an MBA (Finance) from the Wharton Business School (USA).

PEKHAM BASU
Development Sector (India)

In the course of her career, Pekam has worked with victims of domestic violence and abandoned children, social entrepreneurs and funding agencies. Pekham is now working as a Senior Manager (Corporate Social Responsibility) in a Non Banking Financial Company in Mumbai. Prior to that she has worked as a consultant providing advisory services to NGOs on areas like organizational development and conducting due diligence for donors to find suitable NGOs to invest in India. She has also worked with Ashoka Innovators for the Public, initially as Regional Representative (Western India) responsible for the search and selection of social entrepreneurs to the Ashoka Fellowship and then, as Manager, International Development, with their office in London. Pekham has also worked with the Special Cell for Women and Children on extending legal help to victims of domestic violence and sensitizing the police to domestic violence and how to deal with victims. Pekham holds a Masters degree in Social Work from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. She is fluent in a number of Indian languages.